Cady Lalanne of UMass, center, goes in for a shot while being defended by Josh Benson, left, and Devin Oliver of Dayton during Saturday's game at UMass on February 23, 2013. Raphiael Putney of UMass, back, looks on.

New York Giants Pro Bowl wide receiver and UMass alumnus Victor Cruz throws teeshirts to the crowd during a timeout at Umass vs. Dayton's men's basketball game in Amherst on Saturday, February 23, 2013.

AMHERST — University of Massachusetts coach Derek Kellogg has wondered aloud many times this season when sophomore Cady Lalanne would reach the point in his stamina where he could play at his peak for more than 20 minutes per game.

Kellogg may have gotten his answer. Lalanne put together the best performance of his career in a game when the Minutemen badly needed him as UMass held off Dayton 76-66 on Saturday before a crowd of 6,096 at the Mullins Center.

“It was nice to see Cady kind of solidify the middle for us, especially on the boards. I actually think he still has another gear or two that he can play at,” said Kellogg, who considered taking Lalanne out to rest him and changed his mind. “I had it in my head four or five times to get him out for a blow, and I just went with my gut instinct and said, ‘Forget it. He’s going to mature real fast in this game. He’s going to figure out how to play hard for 35 minutes.’ ”

Seven of Lalanne’s boards came on the offensive glass and the Minutemen made good use of them. Of the 15 second-chance points for UMass, 13 resulted from his offensive rebounds and Lalanne scored 10 himself. The other basket came on a 3-pointer by Freddie Riley (12 points).

Lalanne said that’s what he expects from himself.

“That’s the expectation I put on myself. Even my teammates and my coaches put it on me, too,” he said. “I feel like I should just play hard every game.”

Chaz Williams sat next to Lalanne in the postgame press conference and shook his head in disagreement with a mischievous smile as Lalanne spoke.

“Twenty-and-20 guy every night, that’s what I expect from him,” Williams said, referring to points and rebounds.

Dayton coach Archie Miller gushed about Lalanne

“They really controlled it in the paint. Their big guy, Cady, is probably the best big guy we’ve played all season,” Miller said. “That was a dominating performance. He completely controlled the game in the biggest moments on the glass. I give him a lot of credit.

“UMass is very offensively gifted,” he added. “They can score at a lot of different levels, but I thought the game was completely and totally controlled by the big fella inside.

“We’re a good rebounding team. We met one person tonight who overmatched us,” Miller continued. “I give the big fella a lot of credit. He dominated inside and we weren’t ready for that.”

The Minutemen led 37-31 at halftime, but the Flyers came out of intermission on a 6-0 run to tie the game quickly.

UMass looked ready to pull away with an 8-0 run for a 51-43 lead with 14 minutes, 17 seconds left, but Dayton called timeout and answered with 11 straight points capped by a 3-pointer by Kevin Dillard to take a 54-51 lead with 11:14 left.

But the decisive run came from the Minutemen. Trailing 60-59, the Minutemen scored five straight points and extended that into 17-6 surge to close the game. Terrell Vinson hit back-to-back 3-pointers in that stretch to put the game out of reach.

Two of the best point guards in the Atlantic 10 canceled each other out at least in the scoring department. Williams scored just nine points for UMass (17-9, 7-6 A-10), but he added nine assists (four turnovers), a block and a steal. Dillard had eight points, six assists and two turnovers for the Flyers (14-12, 4-8 A-10).

Vinson added 13 points and six rebounds for the Minutemen, while Raphiael Putney had 10.

Vee Sanford paced Dayton with 14.

The Minutemen are off until 2 p.m. Saturday when they travel to Xavier.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at @GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.